The objective of this study is to quantify tactile sensation by physical indexes for the material design of cosmetics or fabrics. We attempted to express the sensory scores of tactile sensation as a combination of physical indexes. In order to extract the principal factors of tactile sensation, factor analysis was applied to the sensory evaluation data of skin lotions, whose tactile sensation was designed experimentally. The extracted factors were related to physical indexes by multiple regression analysis, and the sensory score was estimated by using physical indexes such as viscosity, contact angle, friction coefficient, and weight loss on temperature rise. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 95(12): 29–36, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.11435 8